Picturebooks! Picturebooks! Picturebooks!

What is a picturebook? In chapter 3 of Literature and the Child, a picturebook was defined as a book where the words cannot present information or tell the story alone. The words tell us pieces of the story not found in the illustrations, and the illustrations offer pieces of the story not delivered through the words. When reading the three books I chose, I looked to see if the words told me something different from what the illustrations portrayed. Or if it was just an illustrated book, in which the pictures go along with the words. Looking at the book that way helped me determine if these books were true picturebooks.

What If… is written by Samantha Berger and illustrated by Mike Curato. It is about a young purple haired girl who likes to write and draw stories. She is the narrator of the story and questions what would happen if one day that pencil, she uses to create disappears. The narrator uses rhyme to tell what she could do without a pencil, like fold up paper. She then goes on to other things she could use if she didn't have paper and so on. The illustrator drew beautiful illustrations with vibrant colors. Some pages have a combination of both illustrations and real-life objects while other pages only have drawn illustrations.  It was a wonderful story about using your imagination to create and teaching us we could use just about anything if we wanted to be creative. Although the words went along with the pictures, the illustrations did “say” more than the words, so I would consider this a picturebook.

Drawn Together is a story written by Minh Le and illustrated by Caldecott medalist Dan Santat. This story is about a young Thai boy who is dropped off by his mother at his grandfather’s house. Many of the pages are wordless but there is much to “read” from them. There is a language barrier between the two but when the boy takes out his sketch book, they realize they have something in common, drawing. The boy draws a boy wizard while the grandfather’s wizard is dressed in Thai ceremonial garb. The illustrations then show the two fighting a dragon which could symbolize their barrier that they are at the end able to defeat. The illustrator uses a variety of technique through out and uses illustration sequence for some of the pages. Drawn Together would definitely qualify as a picturebook.

Andrea Tsurumi is the author and illustrator of Crab Cake Turning the Tide Together. It is a cute story that begins with some descriptions of some under the sea creatures and what they do, such as clownfish hiding, sea turtles holding their breath and seahorses pretending to be seaweed just to name a few. But the crab is baking cakes. One night a boat full of what seems like junk crashes into the ocean and turns their water dark. All the sea creatures freeze but crab is still baking cakes. They all come together for cake and then all work together to clean up the mess the boat caused and leave it on a dock. The sea creatures go back and continue to do what they do, including crab and his cakes. Andrea used graphite on Bristol vellum and digital color to create her illustrations. I considered this book a picturebook, both the words and the illustrations where needed to create this story.

Pictures of e-books taken by me.